Category Archives: Budget

Justice-seekers defend vital human needs programs from federal budget cuts at NETWORK's Care Not Cuts rally in Brentwood, N.Y., on May 22.

Justice-Seekers Call for ‘Care Not Cuts’ in Long Island

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Wisdom from Long Island Justice-Seekers at the Care Not Cuts Rally for the Safety Net

Colin Martinez Longmore
May 24, 2023
Social Justice seekers advocate for thriving communities at the Long Island, NY Care Not Cuts Rally

From left to right: Fr Frank Pizzarelli, Sr. Tesa Fitzgerald, Angel Reyes, Serena Martin-Liguori, Monique Fitzgerald

In the face of the unjust healthcare, housing, and food program cuts proposed by House Republicans, justice-seekers came together in New York on May 22 to continue NETWORK’s Thriving Communities Campaign and demand a moral budget that protects all our neighbors! Almost 100 Sisters, clergy, partners, and advocates turned out to oppose these cuts and defend food, housing, and healthcare programs.

In order to highlight the devastating harm their proposed social program cuts would bring to the local community, NETWORK invited organizations who provide vital services to impacted families and individuals of all backgrounds. The result of that work culminated in the first of our Care Not Cuts rallies on Long Island, New York, which drew over 85 attendees and 12 community organizations that are on the frontlines of care in Long Island.

 

Justice-seekers gather at the Care Not Cuts rally in Long Island on May 22.

Almost 100 Sisters, clergy, community leaders and other justice-seekers gathered at Thera Farms in Brentwood, N.Y. to oppose cuts to food, housing, and healthcare programs in the federal budget.

Thera Farms, located on the beautiful, sprawling campus of the Sisters of Saint Joseph in Brentwood, served as the backdrop for the rally. Thera Farms is a local community farm that offers fresh produce to women, children, families and seniors by accepting SNAP, WIC and other nutritional benefits at their farm stand.

We heard from powerful advocates like the Sisters of Saint Joseph Brentwood, New Hour for Women and Children, Mercy Haven, and Make the Road New York. Together we spoke about what is at stake from the immoral social program cuts, and called on the community to contact their members and demand a moral budget.

Wisdom from Long Island Justice-Seekers at the Care Not Cuts Rally for the Safety Net

Selected statements from justice-seekers at the Care Not Cuts Rally for the safety net

“We need to stop putting the poorest of us on the line when Washington wants to balance the Federal Budget,” said Skyler Johnson of New Hour.

“It’s tax cuts for the wealthy that have blown up the debt in our country. It is not the social programs for those in need,” said Mark Hannay of Metro New York Healthcare for All.

“This isn’t just about the government and people being held hostage. This is a blatant attack on working people, on the hungry, on the homeless and work insecure, on children, on veterans, on the disabled, on women, on LGBTQI people, on Black and Brown communities, on our Indigenous neighbors. This is an attack on all of us,” said Ani Halasz of Long Island Jobs with Justice.

Justice-seekers defend vital human needs programs from federal budget cuts at NETWORK's Care Not Cuts rally in Brentwood, N.Y., on May 22.

Justice-seekers defend vital human needs programs from federal budget cuts at NETWORK’s Care Not Cuts rally in Brentwood, N.Y., on May 22. Melanie D’Arrigo, Campaign for New York Health (in red), Rev. Peter Cook and Rashida Tyler, New York State Council of Churches.

The consequences of an immoral budget are dire, but the efforts and resilience of our advocates and justice-seekers are strong enough to make a change. Throughout our rally, we could see a clear, hopeful vision: when we come together, we can create a community where everyone can thrive.

 

 

 

 

 

Colin Martinez Longmore is NETWORK’s Grassroots Outreach and Education Coordinator.

NETWORK Letter to President Biden on the Debt Ceiling

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NETWORK Letter to President Biden on the Debt Ceiling

Mary J. Novak, Executive Director
May 15, 2023

Download the PDF of letter here

The Honorable Joseph Biden
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Biden:

On behalf of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice and our 100,000 justice seekers around the country, I write to commend you for your strong stance in budget discussions against cuts to programs that children, older Americans, veterans, and people struggling to afford their basic needs from harmful cuts. Your commitment to protecting policies that decrease poverty and sustain health care and food assistance for low-income Americans is greatly appreciated and urgently necessary.

Our shared Catholic faith calls us to put those struggling on the margins of society at the center of our concern. As you have noted throughout your Administration, for far too long, the wealthy and well-connected have used their power to benefit themselves, leaving our communities and families vulnerable. Your Administration has changed this trajectory by investing in building our communities anew and asking the wealthy to contribute their fair share to support the common good. This is Catholic social justice in word and in deed.

Nearly two decades of Republican leadership have added trillions of dollars to the national debt through the budget-busting Bush and Trump tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited the rich and major corporations.  Now, those same leaders are using that debt ceiling as an excuse to hold the nation, hostage, by threatening a catastrophic default unless your Administration agrees to cuts to health care, food assistance, resources for cracking down on wealthy tax cheats, and more.

Your Administration is fighting against those who have foisted one of the biggest lies on the American people – that as rich people get richer, we all benefit. This well-funded effort is attacking a cornerstone principle of your agenda, one that calls for robust federal investment in people and community while asking the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.

Your Administration’s policies have resulted in historic gains in employment for marginalized communities, investment in infrastructure, and stemmed economic collapse during the COVID pandemic. This cornerstone is what House Republican leaders reject and what this debate is really about.

We urge you to hold strong on your promise to protect programs like MEDICAID, SNAP and TANF from cuts or new time limits. Your Administration has fought too hard to create a better today for our children, our veterans, and our seniors to allow millions to go hungry, to lose healthcare, or to lose income support.

As Catholics, we believe that those who have the most must contribute to the common good. It is immoral for our national debt to be shouldered by children, veterans, seniors, and those struggling to put food on the table and a roof overhead.

Our prayer is for your continued commitment to justice.

Sincerely,

Mary J. Novak
Executive Director


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The GOP’s Devastating Debt Ceiling Bill

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The GOP's Devastating Debt Ceiling Bill

JoAnn Goedert, Ignatian Volunteer Corp Member
Government Relations Special Contributor
May 4, 2023

Last week, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives passed a bill to hold the current debt ceiling crisis hostage unless the White House and Senate agree to 10 years of devastating budget reductions and major structural changes to SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid. The bill, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 (H.R. 2811), would cut deeply into the most basic supports for our most vulnerable individuals and families and undermine many other programs that protect their health, safety and security now and in the future.

Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) has already declared the bill dead on arrival. However, we must redouble our efforts to push back. It cannot become the basis for negotiations. The five-vote majority the House Republican Conference has does not give them the mandate from the voters to destroy President Biden’s policy agenda.

While increasing the debt ceiling for just one year, the bill demands 10 years of severe funding caps that deepen over time on non-mandatory, or discretionary, federal funding. Those caps are based on a deceptive formula that would hold total discretionary funding for the FY 2024 to FY 2022 levels — but it exempts defense spending. The GOP budget calls for $1.47 trillion in total discretionary spending in FY 2024, while insulating more than half of that amount — $885 billion in defense appropriations from any cuts, according to the Office of Management and Budget. That means that only $586 billion would be left for all other spending for health, education, housing, hunger prevention, the protection of environmental, nuclear, food and drug safety, and other key programs — a full 22% cut from current levels of $756 billion.

Overwhelmingly, the burdens of these cuts would be borne by individuals, families, and children living at or near poverty. Here are the facts of the impact of 22% reductions in some of the critical programs targeted for cuts: 

  • 1.7 million women, infants and children who would lose needed nutrition support under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
  • More than a million elderly individuals now served by Senior Healthy Meals programs like Meals on Wheels
  • Over 630,000 household who could face eviction and homelessness, including nearly 250,000 households headed by seniors or veterans, with slashed funding to Housing Choice Vouchers
  • Veterans who will face deep cuts in Veterans Health Administration outpatient care, and mental health and substance abuse treatment, resulting in 30 million fewer outpatient services.
  • Nearly 400,000 preschool children who will lose Head Start and early childcare services
  • 25 million children in schools that serve low-income students and 7.5 million students with disabilities who will suffer the effects of reduced services and staff
  • Approximately 1,150,000 households in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to who will struggle to keep their homes heated.

The GOP bill also doubles down on strict work requirements already in place for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and imposes new, onerous work requirements for Medicaid. Congress has tried this bureaucratic proposal to reduce the number of eligible Medicaid recipients. Evidence has shown that such unreasonable work requirements do not improve employment stability or living wages, and instead would hit hardest against older workers, veterans, and others with serious health conditions, caregivers for young children and the elderly, and millions of workers in the gig economy.

Under the McCarthy bill, more than 10 million people in Medicaid expansion states would be at significant risk of having their health coverage taken away because they would be subject to the new requirements and could not be excluded automatically based on existing data readily available to states.

Extending this failed policy to older adults will result in more people losing basic food assistance. About a million such individuals participated in SNAP and met the criteria in the McCarthy proposal in a typical month of 2019, which is the most recent year for which a full year of data are available.

For all of us, especially those living in already vulnerable, underserved communities, the GOP bill would eviscerate crucial health, safety, and security safeguards, both immediately and for generations to come. Just some of the protections that would be threatened by a 22% funding reduction are:

  • Rail safety inspections that could prevent further hazardous waste derailments would be cut by 30,000 fewer miles of inspected track annually
  • Suicide Lifeline service reductions that would eliminate 900,000 potentially lifesaving contacts a year.
  • Food and drug safety inspections that would lose more than $500 million and jeopardize the safety of the nation’s food and medication supplies
  • FEMA’s ability to respond to natural disasters with a decrease of $2.5 billion at the same time that climate-change related floods, tornadoes, and fires are on the increase.
  • Clean energy tax and other incentives already passed by Congress that would be repealed, only to plunge the nation into a deeper environmental crisis whose harms are already disproportionately borne by black and brown communities.

At the same time that GOP House bill demands massive cuts targeting the most vulnerable in our society, it would erode the Biden Administration’s FY 2024 deficit reductions by substantially decreasing IRS funding intended to root out tax fraud by the wealthy. McCarthy’s bill would rescind nearly all of the $80 billion in IRS funding that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act to bolster IRS enforcement capacity, rebuild the agency’s aging technology, and improve customer service. CBO has estimated that this would add $114 billion to the deficit over the next decade because the reduced funding would mean the IRS could do less to enforce our tax laws and ensure that wealthy households pay the taxes they owe.

GOP leaders further threaten the U.S. economy with proposals to continue the Trump tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations and even further reward large corporations with more and more tax windfalls. Under new House rules, tax cuts are not scored towards the deficit. Making the expiring tax cuts permanent would give a roughly $49,000 annual tax cut to the top 1 percent, while new or expanded work-reporting requirements target people with incomes below the poverty line, or about $15,000 for a single individual.

In the end, when the GOP debt ceiling bill is scrutinized carefully, what is left is nothing more than a reckless and immoral scheme that risks the nation’s economic security and the social safety net by putting impossible burdens on the backs of the individuals and families in or near poverty due to low wages, disability, and poor health, and unmet child care needs—solely to benefit the rich. The House Republican Conference’s Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 eliminated years of improvements to America’s social contract.


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A Moral Budget Will Cultivate Thriving Communities

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A Moral Budget Will Bring Thriving Communities

JoAnn Goedert, Ignatian Volunteer Corp Member
Government Relations Special Contributor
April 5, 2023

Our federal budget can reveal the respect and care we have for each other. As Mary Novak, NETWORK Lobby’s Executive Director, reminds us, “Budgets are moral documents; how we tax and how we spend reveals a set of moral choices.” President Biden has delivered a hopeful and optimistic vision for the country in his Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Budget. With few exceptions, President Biden’s budget embodies moral choices, and sets legislative goals, that can advance NETWORK’s Build Anew agenda. A moral budget will cultivate thriving communities nationwide. 

Build Anew can bring us to an inclusive, multiracial, and multi-faith democracy. The transformative policy agenda envisions basic economic security, education, criminal justice, health care, and more — for everyone, no exceptions. Build Anew calls for all of us to have the freedoms and resources we need to live thriving lives. This requires policies and programs that ensure the wages and work conditions that American workers need to pay their bills, enjoy family life, and retire with dignity. Too often, wealthy corporations choose not to pay workers for the true value of their work and refuse to pay our country what they truly owe in taxes. In his budget, President Biden commits to offer workers and their families the tools they need to thrive and to finally make wealthy people and corporations pay what they truly owe through taxes. 

Read on to see where NETWORK’s Build Anew policy agenda is present in President Biden’s budget to see why we are confident a moral budget will bring thriving communities

CRITICAL INVESTMENTS IN FAMILIES, CHILDREN, AND COMMUNITIES 

President Biden’s budget boldly includes critical human investments that the NETWORK community has long advocated to help individuals, families, and children achieve economic security and thrive.   

Expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) 

Millions of families were struggling to make ends meet  when the American Rescue Plan was passed and expanded the CTC, allowing millions of parents to achieve financial stability and care for their children. That provision alone cut child poverty in half in 2021, to the lowest level in history. The expanded CTC: 1) increased benefit levels, particularly for young children; 2) expanded access to reach children in families with the lowest incomes who were formerlyleft out; and 3) paid benefits in monthly installments.   

The expanded CTC has expired, and bringing it back is a moral and an economic imperative.  NETWORK is heartened to see that it is a key element in the Biden Budget.  

Permanently Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit 

The FY24 budget also calls on Congress to permanently expand the EITC for childless workers. The expanded EITC was part of the American Rescue Plan and has expired. This provision helped younger workers and older workers without children and who did not previously qualify for the credit to emerge from poverty. The expansions ensured no low-wage workers were taxed into poverty. Permanently expanding the EITC and the improvements in the Child Tax Credit are two priorities this year.  

Paid Family and Sick Leave 

President Biden’s budget proposes a national paid family and medical leave program that would at last provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave for workers.  The budget also calls on Congress to pass legislation requiring employers to provide seven paid sick days to all workers. 

IMPROVED ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

The president’s budget includes a range of proposals to improve access to high-quality, affordable health care, some of which have been integral elements of the Build Anew agenda:

Funding to Improve Black Maternal Health

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations, and rates are disproportionately high for Black women. A Black maternal health crisis has left black women three to four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white women. It doesn’t have to be this way–more than half of these deaths are preventable! We know what we need to do so that more Black mothers and their babies can thrive. The 2021 Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act offered a comprehensive roadmap for addressing the racial inequities that underlie this health crisis. NETWORK lobbied vigorously for this bill, but it failed to pass in the last Congress. We are pleased to see that the president’s FY24 budget includes $471 million to expand maternal health initiatives and requires all states to provide continuous Medicaid coverage for 12 months postpartum, eliminating gaps in health insurance at a critical time.

Permanent Affordable Care Act (ACA) Premium Reductions and Expansion to Medicaid

The budget builds on the remarkable success of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), by making permanent the average $800 per year premium cuts through expanded premium tax credits that the Inflation Reduction Act extended. It also provides Medicaid-like coverage to individuals in states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion under the ACA, paired with financial incentives to ensure states maintain their existing expansions.

The FY24 budget invests $150 billion over 10 years to improve and expand Medicaid’s home and community-based services which would allow older Americans and individuals with disabilities to remain in their homes and stay active in their communities as well as improve the quality of jobs for home care workers.

The budget also shores up funding for community health centers—which provide comprehensive services regardless of ability to pay, and which serve one in three people living in poverty and one in five rural residents.

Reduced Prescription Drug Costs

The budget calls for strengthening the newly established drug negotiation power in Medicare by extending it to more drugs and bringing drugs into negotiation sooner after they launch.  And there’s a proposal to limit Medicare Part D cost-sharing for high-value generic drugs used for certain chronic conditions like hypertension and high cholesterol to no more than $2.

Saving Medicare for the Future

President Biden’s budget will ensure Medicare is fully funded until at least 2050. It does this by increasing the Medicare tax rate on investment income above $400,000 to 5% from 3.8%, by closing a tax loophole that lets some wealthy business owners avoid this tax, and by expanding Medicare’s ability to negotiate prescription drug prices. Not a penny in benefits will be cut.

EXPANDED ACCESS TO FOOD, HOUSING, AND EDUCATION FOR MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES

The Build Anew agenda recognizes that, before marginalized individuals, families and communities can thrive, adequate food, housing, and educational opportunities are essential. The FY24 budget shares that recognition and proposes important steps to expand access in these critical areas:

Full Funding of Maternal and Child Nutrition Programs

The Biden Budget includes $6.3 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and provides over $15 billion for States and local schools to expand free school meals to an additional 9 million children.

Housing

The Budget includes $59 billion in mandatory funding and tax incentives to incentivize local governments to address the critical shortage of affordable housing in communities throughout the country. By expanding the supply of housing, the budget would help curb cost growth across the broader housing market.

In the budget, the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program expands the current capacity of 2.3 million low-income families with rental assistance to obtain housing in the private market. The budget provides $32.7 billion to maintain services for all currently assisted families and expand assistance to an additional 50,000 households, particularly those who are experiencing homelessness or fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence, or other forms of gender-based violence.

Protecting Foster Care Kids and Veterans

To further ensure that more households have access to safe and affordable housing, the budget includes mandatory funding to support two populations that are particularly vulnerable to homelessness—youth aging out of foster care and extremely low-income (ELI) veterans. The budget provides $9 billion to establish a housing voucher program for the  20,000 youth aging out of foster care annually and $13 billion to incrementally expand rental assistance for 450,000 ELI veteran families, paving a path to guaranteed assistance for all who have served the Nation and are in need.

Improved Access to Education for Low Income Students

The budget increases Title I funding to schools in low-income communities by $2.2 billion and increases Pell Grants by $500. It also offers funding to expand free community college and two years of subsidized tuition to low- and middle-income students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other minority-serving institutions.

Funding for Workforce Training for Good Jobs

The Biden budget proposes an investment of over $600 million in training programs, especially for workers of color, women, and those living in rural areas, targeted at good-paying jobs in high demand industries and professions.

PROTECTING DEMOCRACY AND THE FREEDOM TO VOTE

As NETWORK advocates for the common good, we know that economics alone will not assure that communities, families, and children can flourish. At the foundation of the Build Anew Agenda is the understanding that all of us, regardless of our race or class, must have a secure right to vote and to be safe in our homes and communities, and to thrive with dignity.

Democracy

The assault on our democracy continues with former President Trump’s “Big Lie” about 2020 election results continuing to manifest itself in the degradation of confidence in and security of our elections processes. NETWORK is pleased to see that the budget proposes $5 billion in new election administration and Civil Rights Division oversight funding to be allocated over 10 years. This investment would assure that poll workers and elections authorities have the proper resources to aid in strengthening election integrity and security until Congress can pass robust voting rights and election security legislations, like the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Criminal Justice Advancement

Unfortunately, the budget seeks to revive ineffective 1990s policies by calling for the funding of 100,000 new police officers among other unbridled funding without specific accountability measures. Yet, we are thankful for the $5 billion over 10 years for community violence interventions, $409 billion allotted for key investments furthering First Step Act implementation, and the Board of Prisons and Department of Labor collaboration for training and other programs for citizens returning from federal prisons. Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities across our country continue to be plagued by police abuse and violence. Too often, interactions with law enforcement result in harm or death–often when the victim is unarmed or running away. The deaths of George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Tyre Nichols, Breonna Taylor and many others murder because of racial violence in God’s beloved community, must be mitigated by evidence-informed interventions to keep all people safe and reduce our reliance on the criminal-legal system. Data-driven community policing and safety solutions must be codified into federal law by Congress.

MAKING THE WEALTHY PAY WHAT THEY OWE

All of us agree that contributions made into our shared economy should be equitable. For too long, politicians have allowed wealthy people and businesses to pay less than what they owe in taxes, and at the same time, they’ve shamed people working low wage jobs for being a drain on the United States. When billionaires enjoy relatively no tax burden, but middle-class and working-class Americans pay what they owe into our shared economy, that is the true drain on taxpayers – that is economic injustice!

The Biden budget includes calls for the wealthiest U.S. individuals and corporations to finally pay their fair share, while ensuring that no on making less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes. In a series of proposals, the budget would institute a minimum tax on billionaires, raise the corporate tax rate and end offshore tax breaks, repeal the Trump tax cuts that provides windfalls to the top one percent, and cut wasteful federal spending on Big Oil, Big Pharma and other wealthy special interests.  This stands in sharp contrast to MAGA Republicans in the House and Senate that have proposed to slap a 30% national sales tax on everything Americans buy, from groceries to healthcare to cars.

Biden’s budget also prioritizes tax enforcement resources to keep watch on rich and corporate tax cheats. To be clear, those who shirk their responsibility to our shared economy by evading hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes they owe every year. Republicans have voted to slash that funding to give rich tax cheaters a free ride. The resulting loss of revenue will actually increase the deficit by more than $100 billion.

NETWORK CAUTIONS AGAINST UNWARRANTED SPENDING

Unfortunately, the FY24 budget proposes increases in wasteful military spending, as well as additional funding on immigration enforcement, expanding militarization of the border that offers no solution to the situation there and can only compound the suffering of migrants seeking a safer, better life in the U.S.

Such measures fly in the face of both the Biden Administration stated vision for our country and NETWORK’s Build Anew agenda.

THE OPPOSITION TO BIDEN’S BUDGET  

Following President Biden’s State of the Union speech in February 2023, the House Budget Committee was quick to announce a series of drastic cuts to fundamental economic security programs that provide a lifeline for our families, children, and marginalized communities.  The GOP proposal would target basic food assistance, including SNAP, affordable health care, student loans, migrant legal services, and projects that protect the environment and reduce the impact of climate change. In the name of deficit reduction, these proposals may well make the thriving lives that Build Anew calls for an impossibility.

Not surprisingly, the MAGA Republicans reacted to the Biden budget with words of contempt, a vow to prevent its enactment, and redoubled calls for deep cuts to essential poverty prevention programs and environmental protections.  At the same time, they have begun maneuvers to continue the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy. 

Friends, the choice is clear for justice-seekers: we must act to reject House MAGA Republican initiatives that will deprive people of the ability to earn a wage that supports a thriving life, ensures health care that is affordable and accessible, and allows families to climb out of poverty.

We are working for a country where children have enough food to eat, our homes are , and everyone can afford life-saving prescriptions.

We know what our communities need to thrive, and we have the faith and love to advocate for our neighbors, and we have the strength to advocate for what we need, because we are seeking justice together!NETWORK staff and supporters have helped families thrive before by advocating for the expanded CTC and access to affordable housing, food, and other initiatives to advance the Build Anew agenda. We must work together again, through your advocacy and our lobbying, so that children, and their parents, guardians, and communities have the support they need.

Join the Thriving Communities

 

 

 


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Webinar Recording: Unpacking NETWORK’s 2022 Voting Record

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Unpacking the 2022 Voting Record Webinar

Meg Olson
January 19, 2023

Watch the recording of our recent webinar “Unpacking NETWORK’s 2022 Voting Record: The Deep Need for Repair” — then take action!

View the PowerPoint Slides

Next, take action!

Visit our 2022 Voting Record web page where you can

Biden Administration Restored Pre-Trump Era Public Charge Regulations

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Did Congress Strive for Economic and Social Transformation with the 2022 Omnibus Law?

Jarrett Smith, Government Relations Advocate
January 10, 2023

As we begin a new year, NETWORK looks back to see whether Congress made inroads in economic and social transformation with the 2022 Omnibus Law. Every person in our country, whether they live on a sprawling estate, in a farmhouse along a country road, or in a public housing development, should have the resources they need to care for themselves and their families. Sadly, we know that lobbyists and dark money special interests work with some elected officials to block policies that would create just laws and equitable access to economic prosperity.

But NETWORK’s community of justice-seekers know that we can have just and equitable communities where all of us–not just the rich and powerful–can have thriving lives. When we work together and join our efforts with others who share our vision for a multi-racial democracy, we can bring about the economic and social transformation for which we strive.

One of the most important pieces of legislation for the Build Anew agenda last year was the $1.7 trillion FY2022 Omnibus. This bipartisan end-of-year spending package made significant investments in healthcare, housing, criminal legal systems reform as well as critical democracy reforms and investments in voting infrastructure to ensure free and fair elections.

For months, NETWORK advocates across the country (like you!) lobbied Congress to include policy priorities in the Omnibus package like the expanded Child Tax Credit, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented community members. Justice-seekers called, emailed, and tweeted to Congress, wrote Letters to the Editor, and attended rallies, to advocate for a federal budget that supports just and equitable communities where everyone can thrive. Thank you for your advocacy!

An Overview: Where did Congress Invest in Economic and Social Transformation with the 2022 Omnibus Law?

A Check List: Where did Congress Invest in Economic and Social Transformation with the 2022 Omnibus Law?Congress made significant progress toward eonomic and social transformational changes with the 2022 Omnibus in healthcare and housing. Medicaid recipients in Puerto Rico and U.S. territories, and Black mothers who are unable to pay for maternal healthcare receive more aid. For example, Medicaid coverage for new moms is guaranteed for 12 months and infants cannot be removed from Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, for a continuous 12 months, even if their family’s income changes.

Housing measures support people experiencing homelessness, public housing voucher recipients, people in rural communities, and homeowners.

Movement toward justice in the omnibus legislation is also noted in criminal legal system reforms where new laws bridge significant racial equity gaps in health care, access to housing, and equity in the judiciary and police forces. We hope the funding leads to improved health outcomes and treatment by the criminal legal system for Black, brown and indigenous communities.

The omnibus also includes critical democracy reforms that shore up Presidential elections (Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022) and a $75M investment in election security grants to ensure all votes are counted by continuing provisions from the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Sometimes, Policy Not Included in a Bill is a Positive Result

NETWORK celebrates the harm avoided in the omnibus. For example, the continued misuse of Title 42 cannot be part of a fair, humane asylum process. It was not codified into law thanks to Democratic Members of Congress who rebuked attempts to incorporate outdated public health policy into permanent immigration law.

Movement Toward Justice in a Polarized Congress

We are disappointed that significant NETWORK priorities were left out of the package but appreciate that Congress took steps toward social and economic reform with some of the omnibus investments. Ultimately, the bipartisan passage of the FY2022 omnibus package was a significant accomplishment in a polarized Congress.

The leadership of Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT), now retired, and House Appropriations Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) allowed Congress to reach an agreement and fund the government before the end of the year. However, it is unacceptable that more Members of Congress did not support including needed policies like a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, the expanded Child Tax Credit, and the EQUAL Act.

NETWORK will continue making these issues top legislative priorities into the future and – with your help – continue building support for these common-good policies in the 118th Congress.


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Infrastructure Law Coordinator-Landrieu

The President’s Bridge Builder – Mitch Landrieu

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The President’s Bridge Builder

Q&A With Mitch Landrieu

August 16, 2022

Mitch Landrieu, a senior adviser to the president and coordinator of implementation of the infrastructure law

Credit: Wikipedia

A major accomplishment of President Biden’s first year was the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1.2 trillion effort to modernize U.S. roads, bridges, transit, broadband, drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.

Leading this effort is Mitch Landrieu, a Catholic and former mayor of New Orleans (2010-2018). As mayor, Landrieu performed an infrastructure improvement of sorts when he removed the city’s Confederate statues.

He shared with Connection about his work for the Administration and its importance in rebuilding solidarity in society.

Q: What makes an inherently nuts-and-bolts issue like infrastructure come alive for you?

Mitch Landrieu: Infrastructure can seem like a big word – what it is really is about is building a better America and helping people in their daily lives.

With the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity – to rebuild our roads and bridges, so you can get where you need to go, quickly and safely; upgrade our ports and waterways, so you can get what you want quickly and cheaply; and expand access to high-speed internet to all Americans, so where you are from has no bearing on how high you go.

And when we do those things right, we can create millions of good-paying jobs. We can reduce costs for middle-class families. We can fight the greatest challenge of our time: climate change.

Most importantly, we can win the economic competition of the 21st century and shape a brighter future for the generations to come. That is what gets me really excited.

Q: What is the most significant aspect of the work you’ve so far overseen for the Administration?

ML: When President Biden asked me to lead infrastructure implementation, he was clear in his charge: Build a better America without unnecessary bureaucracy and delay while doing what is difficult for the sake of what is right.

And that is what we have done in the past seven months.

We have already pushed $110 billion out the door – money that is going towards cleaning up communities, fighting climate change, creating new and better jobs, a and building a bridge to our future economy. And we have got nearly 5000 projects all across the country – in every state, DC, and Puerto Rico – that are identified or are already underway.

I am also really excited about the work we’re doing to close the digital divide, both in terms of laying new broadband and providing affordable high speed internet for those who cannot afford it.

That’s real results where people live and where it really matters. And we are just getting started.

Q: What role does investing in infrastructure play in recovering a sense of solidarity in our society?

ML: President Biden often says that America can be defined in one word: possibilities.

And that’s what we are proving with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. We, as Americans, can do big things again.

And we can work together to get things done.

This once-in-a-generation investment in infrastructure is an opportunity to build a bridge – both literal and figurative – to the future. A bridge to a 21st century economy where every American has access to good-paying jobs. A bridge to a resilient nation that can withstand the natural disasters that tear our communities apart. A bridge to an America where no American is forgotten or left-behind – and we are more united than divided.

Bridges connect us – they connect people, communities, and the country – and that is exactly what we are doing with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Q: How does your faith inform how you approach this role?

ML: I am a big believer in the common good and lifting people up. It’s why I am so driven to racial equity work. It’s why I think we have to have a moral movement against poverty.

A Jesuit priest, Fr. Harry Tompson, who served as a mentor to so many in New Orleans, told me to “go where you can do the most good for the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time.”  That has always stuck with me.

I take that with me in my work each and every day.

Q: You removed Confederate statues as mayor of New Orleans. What did that experience teach you about community?

ML: A big part of removing the Confederate statues in New Orleans was about reconciling our past and choosing a better future for ourselves – making straight what had been crooked and making right what was wrong.

Sometimes inequity is right in front of us – like the statues were for me – but we do not see it.  Once you do see it, it is hard to look away.

The other thing that was more basic is that our public spaces belong to all of us. The names of buildings, the statues we erect, the way we remember our history do really matter. Making sure everyone is included is critical.

With the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are taking a large step in the right direction. We are ensuring every community has access to safe and clean drinking water. We are ensuring every community has access to high-speed Internet. And we are ensuring every community is protected from the devastating effects of the climate crisis.

The future of our communities requires righting the past and building for the future. And that is what we will do with President Biden’s once-in-a-generation investment in infrastructure.

This article originally appeared in the Third Quarter 2022 issue of Connection, NETWORK’s quarterly magazine – A Time to Build. Read the entire issue here.

Email Your Senators to Pass the Inflation Reduction Act

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TELL YOUR SENATORS: PASS THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT

Pass the Inflation Reduction ActThe Inflation Reduction Act addresses injustice and harm facing our economy, people, and the planet. NETWORK applauds the Senate Democratic majority for negotiating legislation that lowers prescription drug prices, addresses climate change, and closes tax loopholes that big corporations and the wealthy take advantage of to avoid contributing fairly to our shared economy. Opponents of this historic legislation neglect to share that the Inflation Reduction Act is expected to reduce the deficit by $300 billion.

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Email Your Representative: Tell Them You Want the Inflation Reduction Act to Pass

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TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE: PASS THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT

Tell the House to Pass the Inflation Reduction Act

Together, we’ve advocated for years for federal legislation that prioritizes the interests of people (families, those with lower incomes, workers, seniors, and children) over corporations. The Senate-passed Inflation Reduction Act will lower the cost of prescription drugs, health insurance, and everyday energy costs, and force the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. Now the House must pass take action so President Biden can sign it into law.

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